Jaded No More

What I would like to know, and maybe you can tell us this much, is what will this investor get for his $20 million? Or is he just donating the money for the fun of it? Usually when something sounds too good to be true, it is.

His premiership medal is adding a few extra pounds no doubt

Nick Davis thanks you for the compliment.

And you can be a soft front-runner at 21, and end up winning a Brownlow. I agree 100% with you that Dunn needs to apply himself physically to be a part of our future. But after 30 odd games (his age is irrelevant, his experience is what actually counts in this matter) I'm still willing to cut him some slack. I wasn't there to witness some of the incidents you talk about, so I can't comment. I have seen every one of his AFL games thus far, and Sunday was the first time his lack of physically really cost us. It was unacceptable from a team perspective and I'm sure Dean Bailey will pick him up on it. On the other hand, he kept Adam Goodes quite, and that was a major win for the team. I'm very confident Dunn can get better in this area of his game. Many other players have. Btw, even teams that regularly play and win finals have some players who do not willingly put their bodies on the line. You'll never find a team of 22 players who are all on the same level when it comes to their physical attack on the contest.

I think Stef would play on Jesus Christ, if it meant he was given a senior AFL match. What players want and what players are capable of is a completely different story. Martin is new to the game of AFL. He has spent half a season playing FB. To go into his first match, against a team that is likely to annihilate us in the midfield, and play against the best CHF in the game (screw Buddy <_< ), is frightening and it's unfair. The only worry I have with Garland playing on Brown, is that he is conceding 17kgs We'll need to double-team Brown and give Garland help, because one-on-one he can't beat him. It's physically impossible!

When you say "it should have been fixed yesterday" or words to that affect, alongside Hannabal's comparison to Judd and Brown, it makes it sound as if he is a lost cause. We just tend to write players off far too quickly. I remember people questioning Bate last year because he squibbed a couple of contests. Not every player is as comfortable physically, and for some players adapting takes longer. Ricky Petterd ran into an oncoming Hall in his first AFL match. He is a freak with no sense of danger. That not everyone is the same, doesn't mean they are incapable of becoming physical. Gary Ablett Jnr was a bit of a soft front-runner when he started out. He is Brownlow favourite now. For every example of a seriously tough player, there is an equal example of a player who started out timid and grew in their physicality.

Brad Green was not a physical player early on in his career. As time went on, he has developed into a brave and physical player and he is one of our best now. I have never ever argued that.

I don't think we need to play with 3 ruckman. The problem is, that if we want a contest in the middle, we need to keep Jamar in the side. He is most suited to playing against Charman, who is very physical. It would be a brave move to drop White, but a correct one. We can't afford to have one ruckman on the bench at all times, especially on the MCG. It significantly cuts down our midfield rotations and it keeps a deserving player like Valenti out of the side. For me, it's time to drop White and bring in Valenti. That's the only change I'd make. Poor Martin shouldn't have to play on Brown in his first AFL match. If he gets smashed, it will ruin whatever confidence he's gotten playing well at Sandy (remembering he is new to AFL). Garland could play on Brown. He'll concede strength but Brown won't be able to stop him on the rebound. Alternatively the job goes to Warnock. At the end of the day, if Brown kicks less than 5, it's a win for us. If Bradshaw returns we're in deep shite.

Brad Green was widely known as a soft front-runner, well into his 20's. It's only in the last 3 or 4 seasons that he has really started to show the way with his attack on the ball. And Dunn may have been in the system for 3 years, but he's only played 32 games. By his 3rd season, Brown played nearly double the amount of matches, with 57. Chris Judd was on 68 matches in his third season. You cannot underestimate experience when it comes to putting your body on the line. Dunn suffered a pretty serious facial injury from memory in the VFL last year, and mentally he could still be recovering from that. Certainly he absolutely MUST start to apply himself physically on contest, there is no question about that. But to infer that if he hasn't done it by now, he probably never will is rubbish.

If Dunn turns out to be half as good as any of these players, I would be over the moon. Reality is, he won't ever reach the talents or the feats that these players have. The comparison between them is just silly, and it also has nothing to do with putting your head over the ball. Yze is in his 30's and he still hasn't put his head over the ball consistently...

Yep, and with that I hope we can finally kill off the myth that Miller can't kick!

I worry about throwing Garland from one end to the other. He has been doing such a good job down back, and gaining a lot of confidence, we should probably let him play out the year there. On the other hand, our forwardline is shite... But are we robbing Peter to pay Paul?

The only way we'll even come close is if I get very very drunk with Jonathan Brown on Saturday night...

White was poor, and once again Wheatley keeps missing crucial targets. At his age and with his experience, his disposal is unacceptable at times. Thought Aussie made the most of his limited opportunities. 3 goals from a small forward is a good return.

From memory they are Victorian. Didn't Warnock play for Sandy before being rookie listed by us?

I absolutely agree that he needs to get better in this area. It is not acceptable for players not to put their bodies on the line when they have to. However I really don't think that dropping him is going to achieve very much. What it comes down to is courage and self preservation. If you drop him to the VFL will he suddenly become braver? IMO a talk with the coach, maybe a chat with David Neitz, will do a hell of a lot more than dropping him. I don't think that he doesn't put his body on the line or squibs contests because he is selfish. If his attitude was the problem, then you'd certainly drop him. But if what he lacks is the confidence in his body and the courage to go in, then that really won't change no matter which level of football he is playing. All it takes is putting yourself in one contest, getting hurt but getting up, to eradicate that fear. It's a bit like when you teach a child not to touch a hot stove. You can yell at them everytime they get near a stove, but if they actually hurt themselves you can bet they are never touching that thing again! He needs to make a conscious effort to become more physical, as it clearly doesn't come naturally to him. This is something that he will hopefully learn overtime, it certainly can't be taught in a weekend at Sandy.

It's a shame that in the end he got suspended for something that really wasn't all that bad, purely because of the media pressure and such placed on him from his previous incidents. We don't want the tribunal using this incident as an example in the future, but he certainly deserves to be suspended for his pathetic weekly cheap shots. You play with fire long enough, you'll eventually get burnt.

Exactly. My natural instinct, if I saw Barry Hall coming my way, would be to scream and run... at best I'd throw a shoe at him or something. It's not in a lot of people's nature to let a 100kg man run through them. Natural instincts are usually based on protecting yourself from physical harm, not trying to get killed. On a football field, that becomes unacceptable, but that does not mean that your natural instincts are suddenly switched around. I'm sure many players are terrified everytime they throw themselves into a contest, but you wouldn't know that because they still go hard. Dunn needs to find that courage in him that say "yes I'm going to get smashed in this contest, but I'll get up and shake it off". That is certainly something that can be taught. Will he ever be freakishly brave like Rivers? No. But he can certainly improve that aspect of his game if he wants to.

Heard Chris Connnolly on the radio today state that the club is only looking at trading for players who are 22 or younger. That automatically reduces our ability to trade significantly, as most clubs are usually very hesitant to part with their young players. I think the most likely trades we'll see will involve offloading players in return for draft picks. It will work best both for us, and for clubs who are on the verge and looking for some experience to add to their list (think Bruce, Wheatley, maybe White).

If Melbourne delist CJ at the end of the season I will buy 10 Melbourne memberships next season. CJ can be delisted legally, but he won't be. If a club signs a 2 year contract with a player, generally it means they are prepared to stick with him for that period of time, especially when he is earning peanuts and is more than handy depth. Frankly I'd rather we look to the top end of our list and remove some serious list and salary-cap cloggers. We have more than enough players to delist in order to utilize all of our draft picks. With Neita gone, Yze, Holland and White likely to follow, plus Carroll, Weetra and maybe Junior that's already seven possible outs. If we promote Aussie, which I'm 100% certain we will, but leave Valenti on the rookie list, we are still looking at 6 spots to fill. That makes 5 draft picks and 1 PSD pick... and that's before we've even looked at trading... and no, we can't trade Jamar for Jonathan Brown. I've asked, but Matthews is insisting we throw in pick 87 too

Would be slightly hypocritical to drop Dunn for some selfish or soft acts. Have you met some of our senior players? Yes he squibbed it. So has Morton this season and so have many players over the course of their career. It's a poor effort, but not everyone has the killer instinct that allows them to dive head-first into every contest. Dunn needs to get better using his body and being physical, but I remember a young Brad Green having the same problem and now he is one of the first ones to dive on a loose ball and go head first into a contest.

Paul Wheatley is a shocker. Yes he can kick it 70 meters, but he usually just bombs it long to nobody. On one occasion, had he looked to his left he would have seen Garland all on his own ready to take the ball and run. He didn't bother turning his head, instead kicking it to a contest which we of course lost. I was much happier when CJ took the kick-ins, and maybe it's time we gave Garland a chance to do that as well. Wheatley is not effective in this task unless he can spot a man all on his own 70 meters away, and that will never happen when you're playing Sydney... or any good team for that matter. The coaching instruction seems pretty simple to me... get the ball and move it as soon as humanly possible. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't, and that's usually thanks to players not presenting or the kicker completely missing the target. Too often our defenders, instead of making themselves an option, are worried about leaving their man. Consequently, you'd get some half-arsed token effort from some midfielder who is slowly walking down to the defensive 50, by which time the opposition have zoned off and are ready to spoil our party. Even when we play a loose-man in defence, we can't seem to pick up a target. It really is sad.

I'm just happy he is finally getting the opportunities he deserves. And I'm sure someone will come on here and say "he got the limited opportunities he deserved in the past" (yes, that's directed at you Rhino), but we all know he didn't. He wasn't brilliant at Sandy, but poorer players received game after game after game, while CJ was brought in only to spend 60% of the game on the bench and be dropped the next week. At least Bailey is playing him for full games now, giving him an actual role and some responsibility. It makes a huge difference to an inexperienced player when someone actually believes in your abilities. CJ is a very good user of the ball and has some pace. If he can develop a defensive side to his game he might even turn out to be a very good player. Put it this way, had we picked up CJ with pick 3, and Sylvia with a third round pick, I'm sure Sylvia would be on his way out now while we'd still be pumping up CJ. Perception is everything.

Jeff White is struggling big time. He has no impact in the ruck contests anymore. At least Jamar occasionally will tap the ball to advantage. He also does little around the ground and takes far too long to dispose of the football. I know he's given us years of excellent service, but his time has come and we need to learn to play without him. 10 years of over-reliance on one ruck has left us without a competitive ruck option. We traded both Jolly and Simmonds, somehow hoping White will be effective forever. PJ is developing nicely but he is not a center-bounce ruckman. He is not strong enough, and he doesn't get his hands on the ball enough. He can be used to take throw-ins around the ground, and that's about it. Jamar provides a strong presence in the middle of the ground, but turns invisible thereafter. Neither of these players are going to provide any long-term rucking solutions. As for Meesen, I wouldn't have a clue who or what he actually is. I'm hoping to see less and less of White before he hopefully calls it a day at the end of the season. He deserves to retire with his dignity, and while he is still servicable, and I'm not suggesting we should make him play out his career at Sandy, but certainly he has got to take a step back and let Jamar be first ruck for the rest of the season. That way, either Jamar will use the experience to become a decent player (unlikely, but anything is possible), or he'll gain some trade value and we can use him as bait at the end of the season. PJ can stay up forward or even down back. At least he is learning to take overhead marks now... slowly.

It was a soft hit, but he clearly lined him up. You could see that he looked at Bartram, although it was for a split second, then went in with a slightly raised elbow. Had it been any other Swans player, I wouldn't want them getting suspended for that, but the arrogant scum that is Goodes needs a reality check and a week off. Glad Bartram jumped straight up. Targeting a second year player who weighs about 60kg is just pathetic. Would love to see him try to run through Brock or Jones!